Raven Radio Interview

[Guest Hitman Jebus]

Raven was recently on the Get in the Ring radio show, which can be seen on the web at getinthering.tv. Raven had some interesting things to say concerning WWE and especially head writer for Raw, Brian Gewirtz. Full credit for the recap goes to NHB from PWTorch.com.

 

This week Get in the Ring Radio was joined by none other than the number one contender to Jeff Jarrett's NWA World Belt, Raven. He spent almost 50 minutes with Sir Adam and the Phantom in an amazing interview currently archived at www.getinthering.tv. Listen this week as Sir Adam and a returning Phantom welcome the PR Superstar Nord aka Just Joe, as well as Playboy Buddy Rose and Col. Debeers. Sunday, Noon 1240 AM WGBB or live at www.getinthering.tv.

 

-Raven joins the show and agrees with the boys that ordering Backlash isn't worth the money because the WWE killed Goldberg the last few weeks of Raw. Raven says his master plan was to get a 150,000-seat arena, let fans in for free but charge them to leave.

 

-Raven feels that the most he was over was for "a solid two weeks," when he was paired with the Undertaker against the Hardys. He would always get excited when he felt the WWE was using him, then "they would crush my hopes and dreams, after a while, I was just like whatever." He says that any writing course teaches people to write what they know, in the case of Brian Gewirtz, Raven feels like he doesn't know about wrestling. "What's wrestling about? It's about a bunch of sweaty men fighting over honor, pride, over women- sex, drugs and rock and roll. Brian Gewirtz has never been laid, he's never been to a club-he's a geek he plays Dungeons and Dragons. The best work he ever did was writing for Edge and Christian when they were geeks. He doesn't know what he's writing about." Raven believes that Vince McMahon has the same "puerile sense of humor" as Gewirtz, "Vince likes fart jokes, he likes the lowest common denominator, it's Vince's company and Vince can do what he wants. It was highly successful for four years, now it's highly unsuccessful." Phantom asks Raven about his love of comic books, and how he is surprised that Levy never got along with Gewirtz, because Brian is a big comic book fan as well. "You would think we'd get along. I'm a comic book reader, but I'm also a recovering drug addict, alcoholic. From the time I was 15 until I was 35 I was out every night. I couldn't even count the amount of women I've slept with, so you have to understand the dynamic. I've probably been in a hundred fights over the years.(Gewirtz) never picked up a weight, never been in a gym. All these things are important aspects because wrestling is a hyper evolved, pseudo simulation of war. Fighting over pride, honor all these elements that are grandiose themes, it's operatic in nature and Brian, has never been a part of that his whole life. It's not impossible to write about it, but the intensity is not there." He points to the recent developments in the Goldberg character as an example of Gewirtz not understanding the business.

 

-Raven feels like he is one of the most 3 dimensional characters ever created in wrestling. "If you can't use that character, even as a mid-carder for god's sake. Allot of my friends are Gewirtz supporters, saying it's not his fault, but you see it is. My Seven storyline Vince signed off on , Vince loved it took me off commentary to do it, and then four months later Gewirtz still hadn't pulled the trigger on it. I asked Vince, "When are we going to start this?" and Vince said 'What do you mean? We haven't? Let's start it tonight.' I told Gewirtz, and nothing happened again." Sir Adam asks if Gewirtz had something against Raven, maybe one time Raven made fun of him or something, to which Raven says "could be" and claims Gewirtz might not have known how to implement the storyline. Or maybe the other writers didn't like the storyline, or Gewirtz had other priorities. Raven says he is good friends with Chris Jericho, and Chris was someone who was defending Gewirtz to Raven. Raven sees Gewirtz as a big Jericho supporter who helped out Chris tremendously, and couldn't understand why he didn't go ahead with a Vince McMahon approved storyline and still blames Gewirtz for it.

 

-A caller asks about the Sandman crucifixion angle where a pre-WWE Kurt Angle supposedly got upset and left the arena. Raven claims people in the backstage area got offended and asked why a Raven didn't use a Jewish Star instead of a cross, to which Raven responded "How symbolic would that have been??" Raven claims that the sentiment was that since Raven, Paul Heyman, and Tod Gordon were all Jewish, they decided on using a cross, which Raven found ridiculous. Raven says that "to this day Kurt Angle maintains that he wasn't that offended, but I know Taz was very offended. Either Kurt was legitimately offended or the boys thought he was offended." Raven felt it wasn't a mockery of the cross, and equates it to the movie Dogma, saying it was a celebration of it. Raven was told by Heyman to issue an apology, to which Raven half-heartedly did. He felt they pushed the envelope, and felt the hardcore fans were more offended with the apology, then the actual angle.

 

-Raven feels NWA-TNA is treating him very well. "The bigger the promotion the less of a spot I get, but the smaller the promotion I get pushed to the top of the card right away." Raven runs through he resume of promotions, Memphis, Florida, Portland, WCW, ECW, and WWE and says that he really doesn't know who came up with Johnny Polo character for him, but felt it would be a great Shane McMahon character. Phantom says that he was so convincing as Polo, that he was shocked when he started the Raven character and didn't realized that he wasn't a stuck up rich boy, Raven comments "In the immortal words of Jon Lovitz.ACTING!!!"

 

-A caller asks if there was one thing in his career he would like to change, Raven wishes he negotiated with WCW when he left ECW for the WWE. He knew that Vince Russo wanted him in and feels he could've gotten anywhere from $500,000-$800,000 to return to the top of the card. "But instead I always wanted to make it in the WWF, so without even negotiating I went to NY and took a horrible downside on the gamble that they would give me a chance and become the star I always thought I would be, and it didn't work out." Raven feels like he would be better off financially if he went to WCW, but it's always been about "the love of the game, not the money" for him.

 

-Phantom asks about a rumor that was circulating that there was an incident where Steve Austin got upset with the way Raven was talking to then wife Debra. Raven says that nothing really happened, "there was really nothing to the issue, but to even give it any justice would just make it seem more than it was. There wasn't even enough to make it an issue." Raven then says he and Austin have been friends for a while and says he was contacted by Austin to contribute to his upcoming book.

 

-On Jeff Hardy coming into NWA-TNA, Raven feels like he will. "Unless Jeff doesn't want to come in. He wanted to quit wrestling six months ago for his music and they wouldn't let him. He may just want to concentrate on his music now, and be so burned out on wrestling. I'm friends with Jeff, but I don't hang out with him so I'm not sure. I'm much better friends with Matt Hardy and Hurricane, Hurricane's one of my best friends in the business." Phantom says that Hurricane gets along with Gewirtz "Yeah that's always been weird, my friends have always gotten along with other people that I don't get along with."

 

-"I think NWA TNA has the capabilities to take off. Let's face it, there are people out there who are starved for anything besides Vince's TV. I don 't mean that as a knock, everyone is entitled to their own tastes that's why there are 31 flavors at Baskin and Robbins." Feels that there isn't enough awareness of the product yet, "but that takes time. People have to feel confident that every show is going to be worth $9.95 before they get into the groove of spending it every week. We have to string 20 great shows back to back." Phantom says the show has a Southern feel in some parts, an extreme/hardcore feel in others, does Raven think that there should be a more uniformity to the product? Raven feels like there should be a little bit of everything, but the key words should be "clever and creative, we are getting exceedingly strong at both. It's still growing, it's a work in progress." Raven says that TNA have been receptive to his ideas. "They'd be fools not to be."

 

-If Raven were made a booker in the WWE, he would modify Matt Hardy's push. "The guy's 235, 6'1" that's not a cruiserweight, that's ridiculous. As well as Jericho is being pushed, I'd push him even harder. Even though he's the bottom of the top, I can see him as a top level guy with Triple H and them." Raven puts over Triple H for being "one of the top workers in the business before his injury, whatever you may think of his politics- I'd still push him." Raven makes note of the little things he did, that most fans wouldn't catch was brilliant.

 

-Phantom asks if he thinks Jericho or Hurricane get heat in the WWE locker room for still being friends with him. Raven says they don't, that everyone has their own lives, the politics aren't that bad that they can't talk to him. Raven doesn't know how the newsletters report politics in NWA-TNA because "I don't think there is, if there is I don't see it. I'm in the other locker room and usually running around making sure my segments come off as good as they can."

 

-Raven doesn't resent Dave Meltzer or Wade Keller, and says that they are critics they are like movie critics. "Just because you haven't done it doesn't mean you can't be a critic, however just because you are a critic doesn't mean you are any good at it." Raven then gives an example of Wade Keller giving him a negative rating for a match against Jushin Liger 12years ago when he was Scotty Flamingo. While he got "5 stars, Liger got plus-two stars. Raven felt like every spot that was screwed up was Liger's fault because of political reasons that Liger didn't want to job to Flamingo. Raven felt like Keller assumed that it was his fault because Liger was a bigger star at the time. Then when Keller called Raven up to do an interview, Raven called him out on it saying that all the missed spots were Jushin's fault to which Wade replied "I assumed" to which Raven said it was the most lopsided, idiotic thing he ever saw. Because of that conversation, Keller has told Raven that he looks at the business differently. "I think a lot of people view matches without understanding that the object is to draw money. Just because someone doesn't have a good technical match, doesn't mean that they can't draw a dime. You can say what you want about Duggan, but the bastard was over and he drew money. No he doesn't suck, it just might not be your cup of tea." Raven goes on to say that the best match on the WrestleMania card was Vince versus Hogan, simply because of the crowd reaction.

 

"The crowd reaction blew away anything on the card. Hogan's athleticism is never going to be misconstrued with Bret Hart's. The intensity, the emotion, the way the drama built he had the people in the palm of his hands. If the people aren't into it you are not doing your job. That's what infuriates me about the sheets, the criteria is getting an emotional, visceral, from the people that is what will get them to spend money the next time." Sir Adam uses Sean Waltman as an example of someone who got crowd heat, and should have been pushed to the top of the card because people genuinely hated him, Raven agrees and gives Scott Steiner as another example. He says that despite critics saying he couldn't work or draw a dime, Raven asks if Dusty Rhodes was a great worker, or The Crusher, Bruiser. "I was in Hawaii, before he was exposed on TV as not being able to work on the WWE level, and he got a reaction that was off the charts. The biggest pop of anybody I ever saw since I started with the company and felt they were going to draw a ton of money with him. Then all of a sudden he's put in a 20-minute match and the people all of a sudden say that's not what we want to see. So some people have to be protected, Magnum TA was kept to 3-4 minute matches for 2 years it's the job of guys who are more technically sound to get over the less sound guys if they are over because of their mike skills or charisma. That's the way it's always been that's the way it should be." Says the work of the sheets, internet, snowballs to fans who expect better work rate, which translates to the office hearing more boos and changing the way the business works. Feels that Goldberg could make them a ton of money, but not now.

 

-Like Madonna and David Bowie, Raven thinks entertainers should constantly update themselves. He feels like he has always been evolving from his Scotty the Body days to his present Raven character which is a different character now then when he created it. Watch Raven battle Jeff Jarrett for the NWA TNA World Title, Wednesday April 30th @ 8PM Eastern on PPV, www.nwatna.com

 

[ Credit: Jason Powell & NHB @ PWTorch.com ]

[Guest RedJed]

Well if Russo ever has a falling out, I think we know who the Jarretts should take as a second hand man in creative

[Guest My Eyebrow is on fire]

Raven rules.

[Mecha Mummy 0]

While I disagree with him on the Wrestlemania thing (I actually enjoyed Vince vs. Hulk, partially because I was there live, Jericho vs. Michaels had a crowd that was only a little less hot than Hogan vs. Vince and the match itself was much better), Raven's definitely got a really good mind and I'm glad that he is apparently involved in the TNA creative process.

 

Oh, and anyone who refers to Lovitz is cool in my book.

[Guest The Son of Sting]

He always has something intresting to say.

[Garth 0]

Great interview from Raven, but nothing less then brilliant is what i expect from him.